


Things Lucas Never Wanted to Know

by mossologist



Category: seaQuest
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Gen, just a little fluffy and smutty, not completely fluff and smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-02-26
Packaged: 2019-03-24 08:56:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13807863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mossologist/pseuds/mossologist
Summary: Season1. Lucas goes snooping and finds out some new things about each of the crew members. His life will never be the same again!





	Things Lucas Never Wanted to Know

 

 

 

Lucas blinked hard, as if he could force the words back out of his mind with the sheer strength of his eyelashes. He really didn't want to see that.

It wasn't that he'd seen something shocking - everyone has accidentally opened a dodgy e-mail at some point in their life - it was because he'd seen something intensely private. Sweet and touching maybe... But still private. It was clearly meant for someone else, one of the crew perhaps, but now he couldn't  _un_ -open it, and the words would stay with him forever, burned on his retinas, the startling confessions of a girl in love. It was different from reading fiction because it was real, it was from the heart, and it was never meant for his eyes.

_Hi SnowTiger,_

_Just wanted to drop you a line to say thank-you for the weekend. It was amazing to finally meet you face to face, but I feel like we know each other so well already, even though our relationship is mostly online. If you think things are moving too fast then I will respect that, but I really want to see you again. I don't normally have sex on the second date, but with you I feel so comfortable and I just couldn't help myself. I've never let go like that and made love with such abandon. Please don't think I'm a slut. I wasn't planning to sleep with you but now I that I've thought things over I feel like it was meant to be. I don't regret anything. I know it can be difficult when you are at sea all the time and I wanted you to know that I will wait for you however long it takes, no pressure. Message me when you are back in port. Can't wait to feel you in my arms soon._

_Love from Zoe XXX_

It left him feeling breathless, that people still had that kind of emotional honesty with each other. Whoever the message was meant for was very lucky. Zoe sounded nice. But how was he going to find out who it was without seeming like a pervert?

Ben would know.

Asking Ben to help had a threefold advantage. Firstly, the message may have been intended for Ben himself, and Lucas would make a fair wager that it was. Secondly, he knew all the scuttlebutt and would've caught wind of who was dating whom. Thirdly, he would give Lucas the benefit of the doubt when it came to the blatant invasion of privacy. He clicked print on the e-mail and, ripping the slip of paper out of the printer, made his way to the hatch in search of the truth.

* * *

Ben wasn't in his quarters.

But something else that Lucas wanted was. The latest issue of  _'Perfect Ten'._ The issue with the article on the world's most beautiful un-enhanced women.  _Classy_. He thought it odd that Ben would leave such a magazine, tasteful as it was, lying around on his bunk and with the door open. Maybe he was on call and had to leave in a hurry. Lucas crossed the room and deftly scooped the publication up. This was his opportunity to sneak a look before any of the other guys got their hands on it. It was heavier than he expected. Something dropped out onto the floor. Something paper. It was  _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep_  by Phillip K Dick, dog-eared and well read, with a coffee stain on the back.

Confused, Lucas opened the front cover.

_Ben,_

_Every year I give a copy of this to my star student. Congratulations on your graduation. All the best,_

_Prof Weingarten_

_Class of '11_

_~_

Lucas almost dropped the paperback, his heart skipping a beat when he realised the awful truth. It was almost too scandalous and life-changing. Ben was a nerd. Lucas replaced the books as he had found them and hastily retreated from the room.

* * *

He scoured the boat for his friend, or someone else who could give him some answers. Passing crew members gave him funny looks as he poked his head around corner after corner. Miguel was the second worst womaniser on the boat and almost as good a friend as Ben, so Lucas headed for Miguel's quarters. He would've just come off a night shift, but wouldn't mind a visit from the youngster, especially if it involved gossip. He fully expected the sound of heavy metal to emanate from the room Miguel shared with another of the chief petty officers, but to his surprise, when the door opened, all he could hear was a soft but anguished female voice speaking in Spanish. It was obviously a recording, and Lucas was concerned to see a tear escape from the corner of his friend's reddened eyes. He wasn't sure what to say.

"Is everything OK?" he finally asked, worried there might've been a family tragedy.

"Yeah, fine," said Miguel, wiping his eye, "why wouldn't it be?" 

"I was, uh, I was looking for Ben, but you may be able to help."

"Come in for a minute." Miguel opened the door wider and pulled him in.

Lucas's gaze settled on the screen of Miguel's personal disc player. Leonardo diCaprio had just slipped into the water, after letting go of Kate Winslet's hand.

"Man," said Lucas with a slight chuckle, "this is sooo old."

"It's very interesting from a film-studies point of view." Miguel looks like he's going to launch into a full-on lecture. "Some people think the story Cameron was really trying to tell was the story of a closeted transsexual trying to make it in an early twentieth century male-dominated society."

Lucas looks at Leo's frozen face, paused on the screen. "Oh, yeah," he said, "I never saw it before, but you're right."

"What did you want, anyway?" Miguel asked.

"Do you know who SnowTiger is?"

"Is that a trick question?"

"No," said Lucas, "somehow an e-mail got redirected to my inbox when the family-grams came in. I don't think the addressee would want to miss this one, so I'm trying to find out who it belongs to."

"Lemme see," said Miguel, holding out his hand.

"Uh-uh, no-way." Lucas snatched the paper away. "No-one sees this except the person it was meant for. And me. I'm the administrator."

"Then how am I supposed to help?"

"We have to find out who's dating a girl called Zoe."

"You're on. Where do we start?"

* * *

Lucas had already crossed the line by reading someone else's mail. This could be the start of a slippery slope. "I didn't know you liked romantic movies," he said to Miguel as they crossed the threshold of the mess.

"I didn't used to, but then Commander Ford got me started on them when I mentioned I had trouble sleeping."

"Him too, huh?" asked Lucas. "Always knew he had a softer side."

"He may seem tough, but he's just an old-fashioned romantic at heart."

"No-one around here's what they seem, are they?"

"That's nothing, Tim-" Miguel started, but Lucas couldn't bear to hear any more so he clapped his hands over his ears. He watched Miguel's mouth move silently, until he was sure the danger had passed. He uncovered his ears just in time to hear him say, "-Knitting."

"Gah!" said Lucas.

"What?" asked Miguel innocently. "Russel Crowe does it. It takes balls to knit."

They asked Fillie, Phillips, Carlton, Torrance, Sheppard, Shan, Obatu, Mars and Olden, every other man in the lunch line they knew wasn't married, and most of the science team, but came up with nothing.

Miguel gave up pretty quickly, discouraged by the lack of response. "I'm going to bed."

* * *

Lucas wandered the corridors looking for likely candidates. He stopped when he heard two familiar voices arguing in engineering control. They called it 'discussing', but Lucas had parents; he knew it was really arguing. He went in.

Katie was right in the middle of ticking Ben off with a pointed finger. Apparently, his plans involved too much trying to be teacher's pet and not enough helping her mend seaQuest's outer hull after a mild collision.

"You can't countermand Ford's orders, Katie, he won't be happy if he knows you tried to coerce me into doing your dirty-work, instead of  _real_  work."

Katie huffed and shifted her weight to her other hip. "Would it help if I said 'pretty please and you're a better pilot than Bacher'?"

"Ah-hem," said Lucas even though he was reluctant to interrupt, "does either of you know who SnowTiger is?"

"That would be me, thanks," said Katie, grabbing the print-out and looking at it casually, before going straight back to her discussion with her ex-husband.

Lucas stayed frozen, open mouthed, in exactly the position he held when she had taken the paper.

They ignored him.

He stayed like that until the couple stopped talking and Ben physically raised his lax jaw for him, lowered his arm, and calmly steered him toward the exit. He pushed Lucas out and then he went back to explaining why he couldn't just disregard the chain of command for Katie.

* * *

Lucas wandered back down to D-deck, vowing to stay in his room for the rest of the foreseeable future. He'd had enough revelations for one day, even if he did now have the desire to get Tim to teach him to knit. He sat on his bunk hugging his knees and dreading to think what might happen if he bumped into the captain.

* * *

Meanwhile, Bridger was in his quarters wondering what Lucas was doing. He had a rare day off and he was enjoying some downtime with his favourite toy. Maybe he should share this with the kid, instead of hogging all the fun. It's only fair to give him some quality time. He unplugged the Nintendo64 from his monitor and headed for the hatch, grabbing  _Super Mario Cart_  on the way out. This could be a long night.


End file.
